the saga continues...

As most of you know we have literally been nomads for the past 2 months or so. I am not going to lie....it has been a royal pain in the arse! We are living with my parents for the moment, but that is a good 30 minute drive to work for Sam. We thought that we might start looking for a place to rent closer to Chugiak. I figured it would take us awhile to find something affordable, pet friendly and close to the clinic. I opened up Craigslist and wham...there is a place less than a 1/4 of a mile for rent that is affordable, pet friendly and even month to month. So we are on the move yet again. Sam can even walk to work and I will have free reign of the truck. We will move in next week and HOPEFULLY settle in. I have been warned that the place is ugly, but clean and in good condition. I can deal with some fugly. It will be nice to get to see Sam an hour extra a day and chill out on the fuel consumption. I am bummed because now the coaching job is not at all feasible and I will have to quit. I was really liking it and now feel like a total jerk having to up and quit on these kids, but it is just more complicated with Avery and too long of a commute for a small wage. Basically, it would cost us money for me to do it. That is where we are at and I will apologize in advance for the lack of blogging, but I am busy and I only get one nap a day to do stuff now.

Whole Once Again

Sam and his dad made it up to AK this past Tuesday. They drove about 33oo miles from Colorado Springs, CO to Wasilla, AK. They were able to see buffalo, moose, caribou and even a wolf. Fort Nelson, BC was the coldest with a temperature hovering at a whopping -30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Wilson and Tasha at the beginning of their journey north.


Onward to Canada.


Buffalo walking down the highway!




Caribou


Moose


Somewhere in the north.

Avery was SO EXCITED to see her Daddy and her dogs. She had a blast with Grandpa Smith as well. It is nice to have Sam back and he will start work next week at Alaska Equine and Small Animal Hospital. I started coaching with my old club team out here in the valley. It is just a few nights a week with a novice group of kids, but it is really nice to get out of the house and do something for myself. Other than that we are trying to settle in and get our feet on the ground. It has been a hectic 6 weeks or so and things are finally falling into place. I will try to be better about blogging now that my computer has arrived safely :)

we made it!

Hangin'

I will say that was a hard day! Flying alone with a 16 month old is hard. Avery seriously was terrific and only had a few melt downs. The 6 hour flight from MN to AK was long. Avery also decided it would be a terrific idea to blow out her diaper on our descent into MN. That is the first time since she was about 7 months old. I was smart and had an extra outfit. She also was super friendly with our neighbors on the plane and insisted on sitting on their laps for part of the flights. They were all nice and more than willing to let Avery hang out with them for a bit, but those of you who know Avery on a personal level know how rare this is. I resisted the urge to take a picture. I wish I could remember more, but I was seriously a zombie by the end of the day. But, I did enjoy about 6 cheesy bread sticks from the Mooses Tooth on our drive to Wasilla :)
Avery's cousins, Evan and Lillian have both visited and Avery and Lillian have another play date tomorrow. Avery is learning to deal with another toddler in the room and she gets pretty angry when Lillian has something that she wants. They are pretty silly together and it is clear they will be getting into trouble together!

Lillian taunting Avery with a toy.


They were having fun with the ball!

still in limbo

We have one more week of waiting for our Alaska trip. We have been busy with getting things set to move to AK, so hopefully all goes as planned. We are totally in an awkward spot, but Sam is looking like a shoe in for the job (knock on wood) and we are just trying to get things together. Sam has been very productive! He installed the block heater in the truck today, he got a much needed haircut, he got CSU's Vet Hospital to get us the necessary paperwork to get the dogs into Canada and he has been working with the border people on getting his guns authorized to be transported through the country. I, on the other hand, have been much less productive and have been dealing with what seems like a toddler who may have started cutting canines and it is NOT fun. They are not swollen yet, but she is walking around screaming and biting her fingers in the gaps where they should come in. All the other teeth, besides her 2 year molars, have cut so I figure it is only a matter of time. Motrin seemed to help.

Today we had lunch with Sam's Uncle Craig and that was nice. Avery was in a terrible mood, but we got through it. A huge triumph today was that I was able to get Avery to take a bath without screaming bloody freaking murder the entire time. For the past 3 weeks she has HATED bath time with a passion. She screams like she is being hurt or in pain and tries to climb out of the tub. I have no clue how or when it started. She used to LOVE baths and would try to climb into the tub, so I was totally at a loss. She had done this several months ago, but it only lasted like a week. Tonight she started out screaming, but after about 2 minutes she started playing and it was wonderful! I feel so bad making her take a bath when she is in such distress. My fingers are crossed that we have made it past the hatred of bath time.

We will go to the library for story time tomorrow. The downtown library here has 2 pet bunnies in a hutch in the children's section. Avery LOVED them and was so excited the last time. That is about all I have planned for tomorrow. If it warms up we'll take the dogs and Avery to the park, but it only made it into the teens today so we will see.

I am quite surprised the first week of 2011 is quickly coming to an end. We are still in Colorado Springs and will be for the next 10 days. Then we set south back to NM for a brief detour on our trek to AK. I guess we could have paid to have our tickets changed and left from Denver, but Avery had a doctor appointment in Santa Fe the day before our flight and we already reserved a great spot for our dogs just south of Santa Fe. We figured we would stick to our original plan and leave from Albuquerque on the 18th. Both Sam and I are anxious and excited and a little scared. We are being cautiously optimistic! The practice appears to be a great fit for Sam and I hope he is reassured when he visits later in the month.

We have been keeping ourselves busy with family time. Avery has seen lots of her Gigi and Grandpa Rick since we have been in town. She has even become comfortable enough to request to sit in Grandpa's lap during dinner and help him eat his food. She is such a good helper!

I will blog more once we figure some things out. Until then...

The Tundra

As many of you already know we got ourselves a new vehicle. The "deal" had been: if we move to AK we would downsize to one vehicle and buy a full size pickup because we did not want to deal with getting 2 vehicles up there. Well, Sam started looking for the truck. As it turns out he is pretty particular in what he wanted. When he came across this one up in Colorado Springs he HAD to have it. Aside from Avery, it is now the most awesome thing we posses. A HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thank you to Rick for helping out with the logistics so we could get it purchased quickly and Sam could get back down here for work.

Avery had a lot of fun with her grandparents in the springs...the kid only took one 40 minute nap on Sunday. She was running around like a maniac! She thought it was pretty cool that they had windows @ her level. She danced, she ate and eventually she slept.

It was a pretty exciting weekend for us all! Can't wait for next week...we get to see grandparents again and then it is Christmas!

Oh and last night we figured out the blue tooth system in the truck so we can talk on our phones through the trucks speakers. I am pretty pumped about that!

the many faces of...

Avery. One thing we have noticed is how expressive and aware this little one is. She has been like this for as long as I can remember. She sees all and it is challenging to pull one over on her. She is quite expressive. Here is a selection of some of my favorite Avery faces.

The tongue out face


The very common "blank stare" face


Food coma face


The "irrational fear of men in backwards hats" face. She does the same thing if Sam turns his hat around.


Sweepy face


bored


poop face


happy


the "i don't really like what you are doing so stop before i throw a fit" face


finally, the REALLY pathetic tantrum face

Ho Ho Ho!

I know little Avery pretty well by now and I know that she has a serious case of "stranger danger". I was completely aware that she would scream like a banshee in Santa's lap. Still, I wanted that memory and that picture and it turned out exactly as expected. The minute I let her go, her mouth dropped open and she let out her high pitch shrill. As soon as I picked her back up she stopped, which was a relief because I didn't really want to have to try and settle her down. I am sure there are photos out there of Sam and I doing the exact same thing at her age. Silly kid will flirt and smile at any person, but the minute they enter her bubble she sounds the alarm.

Thanks Frank

Our cat Frankie has to be one of the most tolerant cats I have ever met. And I have met A LOT of cats! Working @ an animal shelter for 4 years gave me the opportunity to meet maybe thousands. Frankie is ridiculous with Avery. She LOVES Avery. Well, more like Frank loves to be touched and pet and she is totally willing to take Avery's abuse and call it good. Frank has never hissed, swatted or growled at this kid and I have even caught Avery trying to drag the cat across the room by her tail. Not only is Frankie absolutely wonderful with Avery, but she has been doing an AWESOME mousing job @ our trailer. I have been aware of 2 mice since we have moved in that have made it inside. The first was back in July and Frankie had it in her mouth one morning and I thought it was dead so I had her drop it...whoops. It was alive, but we caught it in a trap the next morning (thank goodness, because I am pretty sure it was pregnant). The second was last week and I heard Frank chasing it around the house one night and the next day I found she had cornered it in one of Avery's toys. Rather than let Frank have the fun of torturing the poor mouse, I smashed it with a shoe. Totally gross, but what else was I going to do? Set a trap and hope it falls for it? Let Frankie play with the thing until it died a slow death? Catch it, risk it biting me, throw it outside and hope it doesn't find its way back inside? I went with the quick and easy and smashed its skull. Then, I threw it in the trash, washed my hands and sanitized Avery's toy, the floor and the bottom of my shoe. Avery just stared at me like I was crazy the entire time. I just hope Frankie will continue to let me know when we have a mouse before I have to clean up mouse poo all around the house.

sick little monkey

Avery has not been feeling so hot for the last few days. She has been cranky, slight runny nose, a little extra sleepy, has had a loss of appetite and has vomited 4 times in the past week. No fever and no cough. Barfing babies are no fun! There is no warning and then there is just barf everywhere. The hardest part is that she keeps signing food and please and opening the cabinet doors, but she refuses EVERYTHING I offer her. I even bought a bunch of new random foods thinking she was bored with what we had and still nothing. I just wish she would feel better. I always worry when she doesn't eat because she is already so little.

Avery resting and watching a little Jungle Book.